The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-10-22
Adversely.
BY REV. LEE FAIRoHILD.
Uewiston. Idaho.l
rim the world you shaI have tribulation. y

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versity as mans f8e; as something
from which we shoud be entirely free.
How often we wish faIat our paths were
strewn with thornless flowers or that
we might drift on aNide serene to rest
at last on a peacefulfshore. But since
man is what he is, .nothing could be so
fatal to him as to be free from adversity.
Hei is crude, Imperfect and uudeveloped.
And now is it not ., that whatsoever
shall make man less crude or less i'm
perfect, is blessing Again it fol-
lows that whatsoever aids in mans de-
velopment is either directly or indi-
rectly mans bless And now if you
will think on your own experience, you
will doubtless find that from your very
troubles have come many joy. In the
storms dark bosom, where sleep the
thunders, is borne blessings for man
and beast beauty for the flowers and
strength for the grass. From the dis
tant mountain half-hid in the gloom,
gush the gurgling waters; and from
the SOULS mountains of sorrow shall
burst the fountains of joy. AS surely
as night takes on her many stars, so
surely shall sorrow have her joys. Place
the undeveloped man amid environ
ments that shall allow him to exist
with little effort on his own part, and
he will remain undeveloped. Give him
a place to sleep, all he wishes to eat and
drink, and he will live and die as an
animal, rather than the man into which
he might have been developed. Protect
us from the thupdesbolt, our God, but
do not withhold the storm ! 1t is an
unfortunate thing, generally speaking,
to inherit wealth +; land yet we would
all be unfortunate), for that wealth too
often shields one from adverse circum-
stances which would have helped to
make him man. Boys have been sent
to school simply because they were
wealthy, and must have the name of
having attended college. They drift
through school, many of them, as so
much drift wood; admired by them
selves and a few giddy girls who are
there for the same reason, to make a
butterfly display in the field of educa-
tion. But they usually find room in
ntlfe silent certaz4ft 5 of the sturdy boys
and girls who are there to work, that
they may benefit themselves and their
country. 1t does not follow that in all
cases wealth is a curse; nor does it fol-
low that all wealthy people are misers.
The poorest man in town may be the
biggest miser. Supposing this wealthy
young man who has lived in ease and
luxury, should have been thrown upon
the world, divested of his wealth; and
wherefore had grappled with the prob
lens which poverty presents, and by
his industry and perseverance had de-
veloped hardihood a character bear
ing the stress of storms, yet stern as
the mountains. Would he not hold in
his heart and brain more wealth than
all the barns of che world
OF course it is very hard to realize
the benefit OF adversely until we look
back. Not a boy or girl in the school
of adversely but thinks it is hard
school, with a heartless mean set of
teachers. Look at the boy whipped by
the northwest wind until he wishes all
seasons were summer. But look at the
boy where all seasons are summer.
And what you see ? You see a dull,
lazy, indolent fellow whom adversity,
using the north wind for a whip, has
never driven to a field Of triumph . Be
hold in the northern climes the splendid
achievements Of the children of adver-
sity What monuments of civilization
have lifted their sculptured forms above
the tide of time, where the forces of
nature threaten to drive man from their
realm ? Why We bid fair to tele-
phone the stars yet, here in the North.
Supposing you had two boys, and you
should give one of them all the means
and pleasure that the unschooled heart
can wish and he should go and while
away the time, having good time. He
passes nicely through sOciety-as any
vulture can if it but don a peacOck's
dress. You behold him, if not some
where else, in the halls of mirth, cry
ing, ION with the dance - or in the
fields of pleasure idly noting the golden
hours emerge, like waves from the
future, and, rolling by, lose them in the
shadowy past-the grave of time. Thus
he goes on through life and at last is
numbered with the multitude who have
burdened time, not enriched it. And
how much pleasure would you have in
such a career? Here is the other son a
sturdy fellow in the fields of endeay0r;
he may be plOughing; he may be at
the anvil; no matter. The man who
has the world for an audience to-day
vas once blacksmith. Labor is Ell
nobling, and who ever looks down upon
labor is to be looked down upon. We
can do but little at best, and God is en-
titled to a large share the good man
does. When we consider the mysteri-
GUS laws of life, we ought to be thank
fuI to God often when we are unthank-